The First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide

1. Find a loan officer, give him/her the info he/she needs, they will tell you a price range of what you can qualify for. As mentioned, it’s great to do this step early as the loan officer can advise on credit issues.
2. Have a phone conversation with your realtor. Talk about your needs. 3 bedroom, 2 bath? Styles of house you like. and neighborhoods. Some people only want a single family house. Others will look at condos or townhouses. A townhouse typically has the upper floor above the lower floor so there is no one above you. Sometimes condos and townhouses have HOA fees to cover a pool area or gardening. Agent will tell you if what you qualify for is doable in the hoods you like. For example, you may need to check out sales in Inglewood if Mar Vista is out of range.
3. Agent will sign you up to receive appropriate listings of houses and then take you out (on your schedule) to look at houses. The market is a sellers market at the moment so houses tend to go fast. Anything that has been on the market a few months is overpriced.
4. You fall in love with a house or townhouse. You put in an offer. This is where you want to make sure you have a good agent so that you don’t offer too much or too little. If the house has been on the market awhile, you have room to make a lower offer. If it is fresh on the market and has other offers, you might have to go overasking price to win the bid. If your offer is accepted, you put a downpayment of 3% (this is standard) to show good faith and you move into escrow.
5. During escrow, you do inspections. Earthquake, fire, termites, etc. An inspector generally runs around $800. They give you a full report. This is where you need an honest realtor. The realtor can tell you what is normal in the report and what is a cause for alarm.
6. You ask for credits to fix problems. The seller decides if he/she will give you credits or whether you will be responsible for fixes.
7. If you are happy with the response, you sign off on contingencies. When you do this, you are basically guaranteeing them your deposit so you want to be sure that you want the place at this point.
8. Bank sends an assessor to make sure the house is worth the loan you are taking out. Usually this is the buyer’s expense, but expenses can be negotiated when contract is first signed.
9. Buyer does final walk through to make sure house is in agreed condition. 
10. Buyer wires the rest of the money to escrow. Escrow gives deed to place to Buyer and gives money to seller. Escrow gives Buyer keys. Seller pays for both selling agent fees and buying agent fees.
11. Move in and celebrate.